Star Trek Discovery: Danger Zone

Chapter One

Acting Captain's Log: Stardate 1029.12. Christopher Pike Reporting.

The USS Discovery has returned to the Alpha Quadrant after our encounter with the human colony on New Eden. While we wait for next red signal to provide us with yet another piece of this puzzle, the Discovery has undertaken surveying the M-Class planets in the Noviani System. The inhabited planet, Noviani Prime, served as a vassal state for the Klingon Empire during the war, and since the cessation of hostilities has cut off all contact with United Federation of Planets. Fortunately, the Novianis have never made a claim for the other planets in their system, and Starfleet has long wanted to study them. Since the Novianis seldom venture offworld for exploration or conquest, a hostile encounter with them is highly unlikely. This period of relative calm means that I can offer my bridge crew the rare opportunity to undertake a planetbound mission. Lieutenants Detmer, Owosekun, and Linus as well as Ensigns Nilsson and Osnellus have taken a shuttle to Noviani-Five to begin cartographic and topographic scans. After the events of the past few days, I'm sure they'll find it relaxing and rewarding.

"I just don't understand who the other men were," Joann Owosekun said as she nimbly hopped from rock to rock, managing to cross the gurgling stream without so much as getting her cuffs wet. "The ones in the greyish uniforms? They clearly weren't the Vietnamese..."

"They were Soviet spetznaz commandos," Linus explained, pausing for a moment to ensure the universal translator managed the tricky task of converting his native communication sounds into Galactic Standard, while also recognizing the insertion of a Russian proper noun in the midst of the sentence. To his relief, the device did its job perfectly, the words rolling out of his mouth in a smooth baritone, and he once again gave thanks to the legendary Hoshi Sato for gifting him the power of speech.

"What is a Soviet?" Osnullus asked as she held her arms straight out at her sides like a high-wire artist trying to balance on her own slippery rock.

"It was a power bloc during Earth's Cold War of the Twentieth Century," Johanna Nilsson chirped from the rock behind Osnullus's. "A collection of countries joined by ideology for mutual economic and military support."

Osnullus turned to face the blonde, sun-blotched woman and cocked her enormous head. "So, society was divided by ideology as well as nationality? Weird."

Nilsson shrugged.

"What I don't get is why a bunch of elite Soviet commandos are doing hanging out in a prisoner of war camp in the ass-end of the Asian jungle." Keyla Detmer opined. She hadn't even bothered with the rocks, but had instead taken off her boots and socks, and rolled up her uniform pant cuffs and was paddling through the stream in her bare feet. Linus noted that it seemed to give her undue satisfaction.

Owosekun looked over at her. "Maybe the same thing a bunch of elite Starfleet officers are doing in the...rear-end of a Noviani-system jungle?"

"Fair question...prude," Detmer answered and stuck out her tongue at Owosekun.

"Presumably they were training with the Vietnamese at that outpost," Linus explained. "Vietnam was close allies with the Soviet Union." He gave a little hop and landed on solid earth on the other side of the stream. He turned and waited for the rest of his comrades to complete their respective journeys across it. The sun, when it flickered through the jungle canopy, made their uniforms glitter as blue as amethysts.

"Okay, but you said a cold war." Owosekun hopped over beside Linus. She counted mountaineering among her shore-leave activities, and she moved with the most grace and ease out of all of them. "So how did this soldier, this John..."

"Rambo," Linus corrected.

"John Rambo legally engage in hostilities with them if a state of war hadn't been declared by his government?"